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Notes on Get Started Crochet published by DK

Yet Another Crochet for Beginners book. But I really like how this one is organized.

DK publishing tends to be really generous with pictures that are clear and well displayed on white backgrounds. That's true here, too!

The materials section has so many pictures of yarn and hooks and tools and colorwheels. Just, whatever the page is about? Pictures! With labels as needed!

The actual techniques are in three sections: Start Simple, Build On It, and Take It Further. Each section has projects. Most of the projects are home goods or accessories that don't need a particular gauge. I think the baby clothes are the only items where size really matters.

All the techniques are shown really clearly with lots of steps. And if someone does work their way through all the projects in this book, they'll be well into intermediate crochet.

So yeah, two thumbs up. This is great one to get for someone who wants to start crochet.

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Notes on Milk Bar Life by Christina Tosi

When I grabbed this book off the shelf, I did it thinking that Milk Bar referred to a bakery I'd seen mentioned in a documentary, and thus thought that I was checking out a baking-focused book. I was both right and wrong.

I was right that it was a bakery when I saw that documentary! But it's grown, and also this book includes recipes that the staff makes for meals for themselves. So it's both more and less what I was expecting. But I can't seem to shake the feeling of betrayal I felt when the third recipe turned out to be cocktail meatballs.

There are still a good number of cookie recipes here, but. But. How dare.

So the good? Most of the recipes are pretty accessible for someone with a basic home kitchen. And there are some pretty interesting flavor twists on some otherwise basic recipes. The Miso Butterscotch Sauce caught my eye for sure. And the Kimchi Quesadillas were like a lightning bolt of obviousness for making something fast and flavorful.

The bad? The book is organized by the internal stories related to the recipes. Not all the recipes have pictures (about 80% do?). One of the recipes straight up says to see another book by the author for part of it.

The index deserves a shout out for being organized by recipe name and by major ingredient. That means the Blueberry Miso Jam is listed under both. So if the basic book organization isn't working for you, you've still got a good chance of finding what you think should be there.

And sometimes the humor in the book falls flat in a way that makes me wince. It was published in 2015, and that's enough time for a few of the jokes to age badly. Otherwise, the humor is just part of the vibe. As always, it's up to you if you want humor in your cookbooks.

Oh, right, and the recipes have a lot of multicultural twists that come from throwing a bunch of chefs with different cultural backgrounds in one kitchen. While there are vegetarian and vegan recipes here and there, they aren't the goal of the book. None of the baking jumped out at me as gluten free.

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Notes on Color Taste Texture by Matthew Broberg-Moffit

I've seen some discussion about this book floating around tumblr as a good book for people who need to feed picky eaters. That's not a cooking need I have, but I figured I would look and see who else might want the book.

Okay, so first of all, I'm going to acknowledge that the author is autistic and trying to help other autistic people navigate food. It's a goal that comes through for the entire book. I'm not rocking any food aversion as extreme as a lot of what the author addresses, so I can't really speak to that specific goal.

However, the book opens with a really good explanation of what food aversion is, and the different ways it breaks down and can be approached.

The next few sections look at the same elements mentioned in the title, and talk about ways to either increase or decrease those factors. So for the taste section, for example, one part if how to make foods more or less sweet during the cooking process. For the color section, there are different ways to turn foods particular colors, with both more and less natural food elements. And then the texture section looks at things like crunchy or smooth and hot or cold and suggests some ways to change those up.

Gonna be honest, all of that is helpful for a cook who is is troubleshooting their recipes. Is a dish coming up too salty? There are 5 things to try to reduce salt. Is something mushy instead of crispy? There are techniques that might help sort that in general. It's good stuff, and clearly laid out.

Okay, so that's all great. Genuinely great, no sarcasm here. But this is a cookbook, so let's look at those recipes. First of all, every recipe has one of these:

Every ingredient list is followed by a list of tools. I love that. That's a great detail for a beginner cook who needs that nudge to have everything ready to go.

The directions are incredibly beginner friendly. There's information on how to heat your pot or pan correctly, and nearly everything has times. There's no "heat until fragrant" in this book. It's "saute for 30 seconds." There are options on some recipes for oven roasting vs frying and the difference the techniques make in the end result.

The chili recipe has 32 ingredients. Is that good or bad? IDK. That's up to you. But it's probably going to be intimidating to quite a few people. It's vegetarian, but with directions to make a meat version if desired.

So how's the food diversity? The book falls a short there. The author is from New Zealand, it looks like. And the author favors yellow and brown foods. There's a few things that have Italian vibes, but... the recipes mostly hit as very basic American/British. On the other hand, there's a nice mix of meat, vegetarian and vegan.

So... If you are the target audience for this book? It makes managing food aversion challenges really approachable. Highly recommend.

And I think this is a really good book for someone who needs a bit more detailed info to get recipes to turn out right. I'd totally pop this book open to the grilled cheese recipe or the omelette recipe for someone who was trying to make one for their first time.

Also, a great book for someone who wants to get started baking bread. There's a lot of baking in this book, but it's all so chill that it looks easy.

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Notes on Mending Life by Nina and Sonya Montenegro

So the sisters who created this book are both author-illustrators. It gives the book a bit of poetic and artistic charm that most craft books don't have. Whether or not that's a good thing is, as always, up to the reader.

So I'm just going to put out there that this book is cute and it has definite vibes. It's a little more interested in showing the art of mending over showing the most practical ways to do things.

That said, it also breaks down most of the stitches into very small and clear steps. I actually think it's got one of the best sets of directions for duplicate stitch that I have ever seen. The sashiko patterns get an equal amount of detailed explanation.

There are also some really practical mending tricks in the back of the book. I'd say they feel like afterthoughts, but the level of detail in the tutorials is still pretty dang high.

So.... yeah, it's about the vibes and the love. If you want that, it's a great book. If you don't, you might find it a little annoying.

Small possible warning: I'm not sure how good the images are for someone who is colorblind. Some of them aren't very high contrast. If that's a concern for you, I'd recommend getting the book from your local library for sure before you consider buying.

But hey, I always recommend getting books from your library. :)

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Notes on Bubble Tea by Sandra Mahut

So I was not looking for books on making boba tea, but it was close enough to the spelling of something else that the library catalog spat this out at me, too. And I couldn't not check it out!

So as a disclaimer, I started making my own boba tea about 5 years ago. I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but it's definitely set me up to look for the book to address specific questions. And this book falls short for me.

The recipes in the book call for tea leaves that are measured in grams. So you'll either need to know how much is in the tea bags you want to use, or you'll need to play with loose leaf tea.

The majority of the drinks in the book mention being served warm. Those that are written to be served cold seem to call for "a few pieces of ice" instead of the precise measurements that most other ingredients get.

There is a whole section of flavored drinks that can be summed up as "buy the right flavor of popping pearl and flavor syrup."

The taro milk tea calls for getting the right flavor of drink powder.

So here's the thing, the biggest challenge of making good milk tea is getting the proportion of tea leaves to water to milk right. If you want to dump a hot drink over ice, you need to use a lot less water. And if you aren't sure of the proportions, then you might need to just let the tea cool off for an annoyingly long time or end up with a watery tea latte instead of milk tea. The book doesn't really this challenge at all.

Oh, but there IS a recipe for making your own fruit jelly. That bit is exciting, because it's in a very reasonable amount. (Unlike the 8lb containers I find for sale online.)

So over all? If you haven't made boba before, this is a good book to get you started, but expect to have to experiment to get things to your own taste. If you do have some experience, you might get some good flavor ideas. Otherwise? It's all about that jelly recipe.

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Notes on Stitchionary 4: Crochet by Vogue Knitting

So like other stitchionary titles, this is just a collection of stitch patterns, with no projects in sight. And if that's what you are looking for, this book is great!

I'm actually going to let the book speak for itself for a moment.

Every entry in the book is like this. You get a clear picture of the stitch pattern, and then both written and chart directions. Some of the swatches are half a page, like the one above. Some take a full page and a very limited (but very cool) few take a two-page spread.

There are no directions on how to do the basic stitches, so this is reference book that's best with something else that teaches technique.

There are sections on texture, color, geometrics, lace and embellishments. It's honestly great inspo for if you are designing your own patterns. I can also see it being great for a crash course in all the techniques, if you just do a swatch a day, working your way through the book.

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Notes on Yarn Spinning with a Modern Twist

So since the last spinning book I looked at was from last century, let's look at one from 2023!

So this book is loaded with colorful clear images.

There's a huge section on preparing fleece starting with the state it's in the moment it's off the sheep.

There's a very well illustrated (photographed?) section on getting started with whatever style drop spindle you have.

There are a few plying options given. Sadly not the next one I want to learn, but some solid beginner ones.

There's a section on a few ways to make art yarns. This is where we get into doing slubs on purpose, adding beads and sparkle, and all kinds of delightful nonsense.

I'm just gonna acknowledge that I look at spinning as a way to get yarn for knitting and crochet. I loathe working with art yarns that are all kinds of uneven textures. So I mostly flipped through what's probably the main point of this book as quickly as possible. There's still a TON of info that's useful to someone who wants to make a smoother consistent yarn.

Also, if you've got multiple spinning books, especially from different decades? Take your safety tips from whomever is being most cautious. That's often going to be your newer books, but not always.

Anyway, I do like this book very much, and I may be checking it out again after I finish my survey of all the spinning books I can get my hands on.

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Download this easy DIY clothing repair guide (only 10 pages) from Uni of Kentucky

link to PDF

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Notes on Creative Mending by Hikaru Noguchi

This book was originally written in Japanese, and translated a year later. So if you're familiar with Japanese craft books, you already know a lot about the vibes of this book.

So things I like about this book: The photography is lovely!

It starts with some simple techniques and shows them in use before going on to some trickier things. That's great for a beginner who is overwhelmed with choices.

It frequently explains the damage that has been repaired. This is from cat claws. That is from just getting worn out. and so on. I know it's silly, but sometimes that little bit of info can really help!

Thing I do not like: Most of the pictures are after repairs, so we don't see the damage that's been fixed.

Thing I am neutral about: A lot of the repairs are extra visible. Maybe with a little extra flourish, even. Great if you're looking for it, and great for showing where the repair is. but also not everyone's style.

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Notes on A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

It's been a while since my schedule and my luck finding a book that hooks me have actually matched up. This is much darker than other books I've read by Novik, and I LOVED IT.

Okay. So. We've got a fucked up wizard high school. It's hella fucked up. Everyone knows it's fucked up. It's still the better choice than not attending. Much better odds of survival if you attend the murder school. Mind you, students aren't really learning how to do murder. The school itself wants to kill them. Great place. Best vacation spot.

Our main character is El. She has an affinity for world ending death spells, and no friends. She'd like to survive her Junior year. Since this is book one of a series, I did start reading with the assumption that she'd make it to the end of the book. That probably did change the level of tension that some of the scenes had from what the author might have intended.

But anyway, with that as the set up? Definitely a dark book. It's still fantasy for sure, but with a nice dash of horror. My library thinks it isn't YA, but the rest of the internet does. Maybe because there's a lot of kids dying in pretty awful ways throughout the story? But the level of detail is more like action movie deaths, not horror movie deaths.

So I loved this book, and I think everyone should read it. Except, well.

If you can't stand the idea of teenagers getting hurt? Don't read. If you are freaked out by bugs? Don't read. If you really can't handle body horror? Don't read.

On the other hand? Did I mention that it's from a finished trilogy?

Anyway, I'm off to add the next book to my hold list. I probably won't comment on the rest of the series unless there's a strong tonal shift between them. Or if I'm that in love.

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Notes on The Whole Craft of Spinning by Carol Kroll

Guess what hobby I wandered back into! And I'm pretty sure I checked out this book on my first go with the hobby because some of it was really familiar.

So this book was published in 1981. That's important to know, because color publishing was not common. Even black and white photos are less common. That means that the images are hand-drawn diagrams of simple, clear line art.

So, if you're interested at starting spinning fiber and don't know anything this is a great book to give you the vocabulary to start looking up more detailed guides. It starts with what to look for in starting fibers, and tells you how to prepare them starting with washing a whole fleece (if that's what you got your hands on).

The section on using a drop spindle include a recipe for air dry clay so that you can make your own with household supplies. The diagram for how to spin includes 5 whole diagrams!

The section on using a wheel has more diagrams related to getting your yarn on and started.

There's also a bunch of modern stuff going on in the craft that this book totally ignores in favor of giving the total basics. It's not wrong, but there's a lot more to the hobby if you really want to start digging.

So basically, if your local library has this book, and you want to get in the hobby? Give it a good look through, and use your new vocabulary to look up tutorials with more images or video.

And if you pick up any other book on spinning there is a high chance that this one will be in the reference list.

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Notes on Meal Prep in an Instant by Becca Ludlum

Instant Pot recipes! With tips for using them on a meal prep type style, if that's your jam.

So while I get why the book would block the recipes into week-long meal prep sessions, it means that the recipes are not sorted into the types of categories that I would want to browse through. And the index in the back is just kinda weird.

That said, the recipes look pretty yummy and easy, and most recipes are designed to create 8 servings. There is information on how to double recipes. Some recipes do call for additional insta pot accessories, so your mileage may vary on if you want to invest in those.

At any rate, a few of the recipes look good enough for me to hit the renew button. If I actually manage to make any of them, I may revisit this review to add details. I'm looking at that honey garlic chicken in particular. Feel free to laugh at me if I forget and write an entirely new post.

Oh, and a good tip I pulled from the book! Apparently the sealing rings for insta pots tend to fail abruptly, so if you use yours a lot, you might want to get a spare on hand. TIL, so now you get to as well.

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Notes on 100 Skills You'll Need for the End of the World (As We Know It) by Ana Maria Spagna

I have a weakness for survival guides, so of course I checked this out when Hoopla suggested it to me.

So the book is a list of 100 skills that would be useful for homesteaders or people living a little remotely. Since I'm looking at it on Hoopla, I'm getting that weird thing where each image gets its own page. That means I'm seeing 8 pages for recognizing birdsong, and one page on blacksmithing (which basically says it's a useful skill so go take a class).

Actually, I take it back. Most of the list is just "this is an important skill! go learn it somewhere else!" but with nice illustrations for most headings. I suppose that makes it a good bathroom book? IDK. I've definitely seen better, if you want actual instruction on anything.

The pages also seem a little screwy, but that's consistently been my luck with heavily illustrated things in Hoopla. You have better luck with your preferred ebook reader.

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Notes on Knit Step by Step by Vikki Haffenden and Frederica Patmore

So my overall sense of this book is that it's a great reference for knitting stitches and techniques, but you'll be looking somewhere else for patterns. And I think that makes the book very good at what it does.

Okay, so I started a knitting pattern I found on the internet and it had an increase I didn't remember how to do. This happened to be the knitting book closest to me in the moment, and it had very clear pictures of the increase and an explanation of why someone might pick it out of the many increases that exist. So I can confirm that it's great as a reference!

There are about 150 pages of every type of knitting stitch you can think of, and a few that might be new to you (as they were new to me). I won't go so far as to say it has everything, but it sure has a lot!

There are a small number of patterns in the back that look reasonably simple. Each pattern notes what techniques it calls for, and what page number you can find the tutorials for those techniques. I love that. The patterns are accessories and home goods. There isn't much sizing info on the armwarmers or the hat, but I thiiiiink that's not too hard to adjust by going up or down a needle size? Probably?

So my overall sense is that this is a good book for a new knitter who has perhaps been mostly learning from videos online to this point. I don't quite think it should be Baby's First Knitting Lesson, but it's a good one to pick up early in your knitting journey.

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Notes on Stitchionary 3 published by Vogue Knitting

Volume three is color knitting! And, as usual, Vogue Knitting has given us a well designed books with complex techniques that mostly show a sense of taste. (Crocheters can play along on this book, btw.)

So what we have here is a collection of color motifs that can be used to design knitwear. This is volume 3, so it's all color-based design. The other volumes are knit&purl and cables. I thiiiink I own one or both of those from back in the day.

Publication date is 2006, but the colors run a little bit more classic/conservative/vintage for the most part. Though you can totes change any colors you see in the book.

Every entry in this book has a chart and an example piece. This is especially good if you are trying to understand how the designs shift when you translate them from a grid to the shape of your stitches.

The majority of the designs are based on just switching colors on flat stockingette, so easily adapted for crochet. I'm less sure that the section on texture and slip stitching will translate as easily, but I'm not the fiber police. You can totally try it.

The series is a solid collection of design reference for knitting, and if I found them used, I'd certainly be tempted to snap them all up.

Aaaaand I just checked. Volume 4 is crochet, so I've just put in a request for it. Will review when I get it in my hot little hands!

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Notes on Found Recipes published by Betty Crocker

Let's start with the most painful thing about this book: The 1990s are vintage now. On the other hand, that means we aren't about to discuss a bunch of jello salads.

Betty Crocker published a bunch of recipe magazines and books over the years. This book is mostly a collection of the most requested "lost" recipes in the archives, with a few that were attempts to recreate recipes that were truly lost. Most recipes have a blurb telling you the original source.

Betty Crocker recipes also skew towards baking, so... YUM.

Most recipes have pictures. Maybe all of them do, but I wasn't looking too closely because I started to get hungry. There are also genuine vintage pictures from the company's history scattered throughout. Many of those are 1970s or older, and some of them are kinda neat!

There's a chocolate scotchmallow cake. That alone would get a positive review from me.

There are also a high number of 1990s americanized interpretations of Mexican food. Honestly? They look like a lot of stuff my mom cooked, so I'm not going to knock them. But it's a lot of psuedo-mexican flavors applied to mid-western cooking techniques. That hits as comfort food for me, but I totally get it if it sounds like culinary horror for you.

Oh! And if you are familiar with those 1990s cookbooks, you know they used a ton of bisquik and cake mixes. There's a bit of that in this book, but a lot of the recipes were recreated with from-scratch directions instead. Not all of them tho! So that's another YMMV point.

Overall? I gotta go photocopy a cake recipe, but, uh.... I may kinda own a lot of those 1990s recipe magazines already?

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Notes on The Just Bento Cookbook 2 by Makiko Itoh

I own and love the first book by this author, so I was delighted to find this on the library shelf.

So the main thing you should know about this book is that you can use it without having book 1, but this doesn't cover most of the stuff in book 1. So there's some stuff on how to pack bento boxes with food safety in mind, like in book 1. But there are classic recipes that are not here.

The recipes are written with Japanese taste in mind. I don't think the book is translated, but the bits with Mexican or Korean flavors (for example) are still very filtered through a Japanese lens. I don't mind that in the context of this book, but it might be a little weird if you are expecting an American filter, or an attempt at Doing Things Authentically For Each Culture.

Anyway, I wanna own this book, but I don't want to steal from the library. So it's going on my wishlist for now, which is the highest honor I can award a library book.